US approves over $500M arms sale to Israel ahead of Netanyahu visit
The State Department has greenlit $500 million worth of JDAM guidance kits for Israeli bombs, as at least 80 people were reportedly killed by Israeli military gunfire and airstrikes across the Gaza Strip on Monday.
WASHINGTON — The Trump administration announced on Monday that it had notified Congress of plans to sell $510 million worth of Joint Direct Attack Munition guidance kits for the Israeli Air Force’s air-to-ground bombs.
The State Department and the Pentagon signed off on the sale of more than 7,000 JDAM guidance kits designed to be affixed to the Israeli Air Force’s unguided BLU-109 2,000-pound bombs and Mk-82 500-pound bombs.
Why it matters: The planned sale comes as Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is expected to meet with US President Donald Trump at the White House next Monday, an administration official confirmed to Al-Monitor.
Trump has been signaling interest over the past week in achieving another hostage release deal in Gaza. On Sunday, the president posted on his social media platform, Truth Social, urging Netanyahu to “make the deal in Gaza” in order to secure the return of the remaining hostages.
The prime minister on Sunday vaguely hinted that the end of Israel’s 12-day war with Iran had opened up “broad regional possibilities.”
“First, [our priority is] to free all the hostages,” Netanyahu said during a visit to a Shin Bet headquarters in Israel’s south on Sunday.
Israeli naval bombardment targeting a cafe frequented by journalists in Gaza City killed at least 30 people on Monday. Over the weekend, Israeli artillery targeted areas of east Gaza City, including at least one school where displaced civilians had sought shelter, Reuters reported.
What they’re saying: Israel wants to normalize diplomatic relations with Lebanon and Syria, and the Trump administration is holding what an official described as “preliminary" talks on the subject, Axios reported on Monday.
Israel’s Foreign Minister Gideon Saar said on Monday, however, that the status of the Golan Heights — which Israel captured from Syria in the 1967 war and later illegally annexed in 1981 — was not on the table for discussion.
Trump administration officials are apparently hoping Syria’s Islamist leader, Ahmed al-Sharaa, can be persuaded to move ahead regardless.
On Monday, Trump signed an executive order ending the broad and complex array of US economic sanctions on Syria, many of which date back to the early decades of Assad family rule.
The order also directs dual-hatted US national security adviser and Secretary of State Marco Rubio to review Hayat Tahrir al-Sham’s formal designation as a Foreign Terrorist Organization, as well as Syria’s formal status under the US government as a state sponsor of terrorism.
The order maintains sanctions on the al-Assad family, a senior administration official told reporters on Monday.
What’s next: US and Israeli officials are expected to continue their discussions in the coming days.
Israel’s minister for strategic affairs, Ron Dermer — a close confidant of Netanyahu’s — arrived in Washington on Monday to begin the discussions.
Know more: Democrats in Congress have mounted no successful attempts to restrict the Trump administration’s arms sales to Israel since the second-term president took office in January.
The Senate on Friday rejected a war powers resolution raised by Sen. Tim Kaine (D-Va.) that sought to block Trump’s use of military force against Iran without lawmakers’ approval.
Had it succeeded, the measure, which failed in a 47-53 vote, would have forced the Trump administration to justify its reliance on Article II of the Constitution to launch long-range airstrikes to disrupt Iran’s nuclear facilities on June 22.
The administration has not publicly argued that Iran posed an immediate threat to the US.
